Miscellaneous

I wrote this two days ago to go with something else..But I am reposting it just to show that I was writing about a real person, My Uncle Johnnie J. Crittenden who rests here in a church yard in Leary Georgia, he had the job of teaching “little Black men” how to survive in American Apartheid…a horrible place that we had for much too long been taught to think it was “normal”…I don’t fault my Uncle for excepting things like they were….I have no idea of how many horrors he may have seen in his lifetime..but somebody had to show us how not to get killed..because as history shows us , children got killed too back then..other people were the soldiers of the movement, people like Uncle Johnnie were “Guardians” …may he rest in peace and he has my eternal thanks…”I had to learn at a very young age that certain people got treated better than me and could do things I was not allowed to do just because of the color of their skin. and that it was the law. it was right around this time that my uncle Johnny took me and my cousin for a walk in Albany Georgia..actually it may have been Dawson Ga. . He pointed out signs with big letters. I was just starting to learn how to read, my cousin “Junior” was older than me but didn’t know his letters yet. We had to learn the letter “C” and the letter “W”. And were taught that the C was for us and the W was for white people. At the time I didn’t even know any white people, I was in the “kindergarten” But uncle Johnny told us that it was his job to tell all the little boys this because if you go in the wrong door or touch the wrong thing you may never see your Mama again. It was a couple of days later that I went to the store with my Mom and her aunt Belle, who was Uncle Johnny’s wife. And I felt like I could impress my Mom if she saw how much I knew. I went over to the water fountain and told her “See Mama, this one is for me, touching the one that said “colored” and then I went to the other one and put my hand on it and said “and this one is for white folks. This was the very first time my mother ever hit me in the face, and also the first time I saw her with an expression I figured out it was fear. The reason I know it was 1955 is because the story about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus boycott was on the radio in the car as we drove home…yeah…we lived in a different world.. And we have many people to thank for helping to change it…..but we are not done yet.”

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“The Supreme Court refused just before midnight on Wednesday to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions, less than a day after it took effect and became the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation.

The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.”

OKAY, I am old enough to REALLY get the symbolism behind this picture. As a child I saw one woman bleed to death. And was in the next room when another woman died when her body became “septic” and my aunt who she came to for help could not save her. All from “botched ” abortions. And by the time they came to my aunt to get help in rural Georgia.. it was too late.. Women too desperate and with too few choices. I was too young to understand at the time what a “back ally” abortion was. But I found out. The new law passed in Texas is like a mean spirited step back into the “stone age” Women Black , white, rich and poor died of or suffered lasting damage due to the lack of safe …and legal, abortions. It has nothing to do with whether you approved of abortion. It has to due with the health and safety of women. Do to believe in THAT??. And while I am on the subject. In times like this ..too many mostly white privileged alleged progressives like to spread around the idea of “Boycotting” the state of Texas. I’m sorry, all the people I know in Texas are Brown and Black and Native people who don’t deserve to have their livelihood threatened because liberals and alleged progressive want to jump on the boycott band wagon just because they don’t understand the demographics of Texas. If you really want to help ..send money to people doing voter registration and education in Texas. Help fight voter suppression in Texas…but musicians , and people in the service industry don’t have to suffer

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One of the things that bugs me about a lot of the “wanna be” progressives who come on Facebook and other social media platforms. Who do the long “I got all the answers” posts. And think they are supposed to tell people like me, and people who live where I live, who to vote for, and the right way to see current events. Is that on days like today they got “nothing”. It’s usually is not their daughters and sons wearing the uniform of the United States military. Often it’s because they don’t have to. Their children for the most part have other choices..lots of other choices. Regardless of how we feel about war. Going into the military for many of our children provides them educational and vocational opportunities they won’t otherwise be able to get. The horror that goes through the minds and hearts of the parents and family of the troops serving in Afghanistan today … not knowing if their child survived an attack like today can’t be described.. It’s got nothing to do with if you call yourself a ” progressive” or not. many of the people l talked to on the phone today are some of the hardest working activists l have ever known. Living in fear of getting that notification….U.S. Marine, Sgt Johanny Rosario (25)
U.S. Marine, Cpl Hunter Lopez (22)
U.S. Marine, LCpl Kareem Nikoui (22)
U.S. Marine, LCpl Rylee McCollum (20)
U.S. Marine, LCpl Jared Schmitz (20)
U.S. Marine, LCpl David Lee Espinoza (20)
U.S. Navy, Maxton Soviak (20)
U.S. Marine, SSGT Taylor Hoover (31)
U.S. Marine, Cpl Daegan Page (23)
U.S. Army, SSGT Ryan Knauss (23)
U.S. Marine, Cpl Humberto Sanchez (22)
U.S. Marine, Sgt Nicole Gee (23)
U.S. Marine, LCpl Dylan Merola (20)

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The good news is that this film although “dramatized” actually does an excellent job of portraying Black Panther Party members like never before..Many people who were in the movement both “Panther” and SNCC people are still reeling over the insulting cartoon like way 60s Black militants were portrayed in the film “Black Klansman”…And it’s barely worth it to mention the horrible Mario Van Pebbles film “Panther”..a true insulting cinema joke. AS a person who was there, and worked at Panther chapters in several cities ..”Judas and the Black Messiah” take on the people and lifestyle of Panthers in many cities like Chicago was very familiar. The real story though is about the “Judas”…the FBI plant in the chapter. There were many of these people ..Usually people who were criminals targeted by FBI agents who agreed to join the BPP in order to get a reduced sentence or sometimes just for pay. It was complex. And they found many ways to disrupt or even destroy some Panther chapters. It helped the film that William “Bill” O’Neal the real life “informant” portrayed in the film sat down for the documentary “Eyes on the Prize II” and told his story in detail…Liberties are taken with O’neal’s role..but the film pretty much nailed it..I could not watch the film in one sitting I literally had moments of PTSD ..when the informant suggested they “bomb” a building ..showing up with military explosive. This kind of thing actually happened a lot…We were young…the average age for a Panther member in those days was about 21…Many times ..the person who showed up with M-16s or high explosives ..or in my case a way to get into and rob an armory…almost always turned out to be informants. It took getting “burned” or having a friend killed or arrested to learn this painful lesson..We even had Party members accused of being informants ..who were punished and or killed by people who were themselves the real informants. All of that came back while I watched this film It was painful…The story gave a fairly accurate picture of Hampton..writers got him perfectly ..Particularly his efforts to unite poor Whites , Black people and Hispanics into a single movement….this is what made Fred Hampton so dangerous…..why he had to go. His “Rainbow Coalition” scared the FBI to death…But the movie was really about the informant and the sick relationship he had with his FBI “handler” I had to watch the second half of the film late last night ..alone at about 4 am. The gun battles…the detailed descriptions of cruelty done to suspected informants it all came back to me….But on the other hand I wish they had shown more of the day to day life..the communal living, the comradery …which we only see bits and pieces of..But for the most part better than anyone else has ever done…this film captures a time in my life.. a time in American history with respect to the people who lived it…warts and all …”Judas and the Black Messiah,” SEE IT

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Some of you will know of what I speak…..most of you won’t …You have skin of the darkest hue. You have been conditioned to believe that there are no people on the planet as ignorant and ugly as you. You live in a part of the world built on the blood and corpses and the muscle of your people. You are taught from the cradle to the grave that people who look and think like the people who used to own you are the rightful kings and queens of the earth. You learn to hate the darkness of your skin….despise the kind of hair you have.. Every where you look there are signs telling you you can’t come in …or you are not wanted…People are free to murder you and easily get away with it. You develop a culture where the worst insult a person can say is “YOU BLACK”. You even come to think maybe this is normal. Then one day you become aware of a person with what could very well be the most beautiful face you have ever or maybe will ever see. The society you live in uses her to sell clothing …a stunning beautiful clothes hanger. But she is the darkest of Black..and although totally African her beauty simply can not be denied . Soon she begins to wear her hair in it’s natural state. Little dark girls slowly begin to take on this “natural” hair style. “She is beautiful , Black and her hair is natural….I can be too”..Cicely Tyson let a “Jeannie Out of the Bottle” that could not be put back in ..She taught a whole generation that not only was our skin beautiful …but our hair…the hair of a great people was a wonderful thing..She left modeling and dared to take on the theater , film and television..blazing a trail each and every time, and she was not just good looking she brought excellence.. It was like God put her here during the civil rights movement ..just to show us what we could be…And she was not a “Diva” …sucking the air out of every room she is in and jealous of any other performer NO..She put out her hand and encouraged more than one generation of little black girls …little brown girls and young performers of every persuasion to be proud ..to work hard…and make a way for the people coming next. She didn’t just let them name a school after her…she made sure she was a part of the lives of all the students and supported them when they went out into the world ..Cicely was bigger than just a movie star…she was a People Builder…who came into our lives just when we needed her..There are so many people talking about her that I don’t need to number her works…I think it’s what she meant to us that is more important..Rest Cicely Tyson….job well done

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Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924 – July 17, 2020) a giant who walked among us..This loss hurts..Cordy Tindell Vivian was born July 30, 1924..He was one of those people who you heard about long before you ever met him ..and I remember well the first time I met him at a “Young Peoples brigade” meeting in 1964.in Atlanta…I expected him to be kind of scary..and not very approachable ..nothing was farther from the truth..He had a wonderful laugh..and a joke all the time..The main thing about “CT” as we all called him was he had a profound understanding of the moment..The time we were in ..and almost always defended the place of young people in the movement..He knew that just getting a civil rights bill or when we got the voting rights act that the struggle would still have a long way to go and what we did in that time would not just define the movement…but define us as people for the rest of our lives. I was about 15 when he told me that Hosea Williams was going to make sure some teens from Atlanta would be at the march in Selma in March of 65.the one that became known as
Bloody Sunday…”CT” always made sure we knew why we were there…what was at stake and that anybody with the “brains god gave a chicken” would be afraid ..but that we were in this not just for us but for any children we might have..Few of those early giants took as much time to get young people to understand what our participation in the movement meant as CT. Years later when we set up the Free Breakfast Program with the Black Panther Party in Atlanta..CT was there on the first day..mainly to make sure people knew that there would be no lack of love between the different arms of the movement..and that he was proud of me…In 1969 that meant the world to me .I last saw him in 1996 when I was in Atlanta to bury my mother ..He knew my mother from her work in the fifties with the “March of Dimes”..You may not have known his name ..but we still feel the results of his work today..Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924 – July 17, 2020) a giant.

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What “boomers” know ( and guess what ?..we were much more radical , anti-racist, and activist than most of today’s “Millennials” ) that many people have forgotten. We have been here before..as much change as we built with our organizing and demonstrating in the 1960s..the forces of power used the fact that there was rioting, burning and destruction in the cities as a call to arms for conservative and reactionary forces..when the election of 1968 happened..Richard Nixon a man who could teach Trump a WHOLE LOT about being a fascist .appealed to what he called “the great silent majority” to go to the polls in armies..to stop the fear. Nixon won that election..BIG TIME..We found out later that looting can catch on like a sickness…all it takes is one or two people to break a window , and the masses get set off..the worse the times are..the easier ..just like lighting a fuse..and even ordinary people could get “looting” fever..years later we find that many times the people who struck that match ..worked for Nixon.and sometimes even the Klan…Nixon called himself the “Law and Order” candidate..guess who is using the same tactic??..Trump..and many of us are playing right into his hands…Like I say all the time..”nothing is new under the sun”..and the nation is getting “played” again…with an “old trick”….just an old head talking.

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